Calls for protests as another university teacher killed in Algeria

Algerian academics and university lecturers have called for a demonstration tomorrow in front of the headquarters of the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research to express their “indignation” following the killing of a university teacher at the University of Khemis Miliana last week.

The dead body of Karoui Bachir Serhan, a law professor at the Djilali Bounaama University of Khemis Miliana, was found over the weekend in the northern Tipaza region, according to Tahar Mohamed Benhadj, dean of the Faculty of Law and Political Science.

The teachers released a statement yesterday stating:

We, teachers, academics and intellectuals, say no. No to the infernal spiral that kills the university and those who struggle for survival. Let us make sure that the murder of Karoui Serhane does not kill what remains of our dignity.

According to the signatories, Serhane paid with his life for the “indifference, self-denial, self-sacrifice, impunity, irresponsibility and the trivialisation of murderous violence in Algerian universities.”

Since the start of the year, the signatories have been calling on public authorities to deal with the violence that has spread in universities in recent months.

Two people have been arrested on suspicion of the murder but the motive for the killing is still not known. “No one knows whether the alleged perpetrators of this crime are students or not. On the other hand, what is known is that the suspects are two brothers who lived in the city where the body was found. The former is 19 years old and the other 18 years,” Benhadj explained.